When I was growing up there were three pop culture influences in my life that truly helped forge my personality and create the charmingly wise-ass, anti-social mess you see here before you today. They were, in no particular order, Woody Allen, Bugs Bunny and Hawkeye Pierce.
In particular, Woody Allen changed me at a formative age; his films were the equivalent of a speeding car that careened into my psyche and sense of humor so hard that it knocked both in an entirely new direction, one I've traveled on ever since that collision.
I bring this up for no other reason than to justify linking to a clip from PBS's new documentary on Woody, one that features a scene from one of my favorite movies of all time: Love and Death.
Yeah, I know. In the words of Meryl Streep's character in Manhattan, like the creations who stand in for him in his films, he's given to fits of "male chauvinism, self-righteous misanthropy, liberal paranoia... nihilistic moods of despair... and a fear of death which he elevates to tragic heights when, in fact, it's sheer narcissism," and God knows he telegraphed the hell out of that Soon-Yi punch. But in the end, he's a genius, through and through.
The Hollywood Reporter: PBS Documentary Spotlights Woody Allen/11.18.11
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